Business Research Blog

Friday, November 6, 2009

Today's assignment is related to the questionnaire development. As I sit right now, it seemed really easy to develop my questionnaire. I made two attempts to design it and the first didn't go very well. I had thoughts running through my mind about the focus group info that I had collected, all of the guidelines listed out in the text, describing what to write and how to write it, not to mention the fact that I'm actually going to have to pull data out of this thing to use at a later date. So I crumpled up the first attempt and tossed it in the trash and I sat down with a blank sheet of paper and I thought "What do I want to get out of this questionnaire?" Taking a step back and looking at the big picture helped me to stay focused on my objective with the questionnaire. Once I got my main points down on paper, I could fill in the support questions that helped funnel the information down to usable topics. After that, it was just making it pretty, making sure I didn't have any goofy questions. Pretty good assignment that will be pretty effective to capture the needed data for my research.

Friday, October 16, 2009

What to do, what to do....that was my thoughts on this weeks assignment. Taking a look at the different types of sampling in the text gave me some ideas about my research project. I'm not sure about you guys, but most of my research is being conducted at my place of employment and not at the school. Taking this into account, I tried to look at what would give me the best data that could be used for a research firm not only to make a decision, but to make a more informed decision than previously available. If that were the case, I would choose quota sampling. I liked how they described in the book that an interviewer would be assigned 100 interviews and he would disperse those interviews among the intended respondents. Although my research is focusing on hourly associates that work night shift in a plant environment, reading the breakdown described in the book actually got me thinking that maybe I need to look a little further into my research. This would include mostly hourly associates, just like the book, but could also include (in limited numbers and on a much smaller scale) Managers at the plant, team leaders, trainers, visitors to the plant that will be working night shift, and so on. Of course the main focus would still be on the hourly associates, because that is where the benefit of my research will be most useful, but it will also include a broader scope of individuals that could be captured underneath the same umbrella.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Three things I found wrong with the questionaire are face validity, criterion validity and construct validity. When I took the questionaire, I was thinking "what the hell is this thing talking about?". The questions were all over the place. If we look at face validity, we can see that if you try and look at the data, you don't really know what the questionaire is supposed to measure. Also, the criterion validity can't be reached because with the questionaire being so broad and covering so many different topics, it is impossible to correlate with anything. When we look ath the construct validity, it is kind of the same thing as we see with the criterion validity in that it is so broad that you can't relate to a hypothesis. This would be a data miner's nightmare.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Well, I checked out the online surveys for this assignment and liked what I saw. That's a pretty cool concept where you can actually take surveys on stuff that you're interested in. And the way it looks, you can get paid for it and maybe win a few prizes. Pretty neat. I've learned something new. I have to admit that I pulled all the sites up across the browser and flipped through all of them to see which caught my eye. The one that grabbed my attention from the beginning and the one that I kept going back to was Surveyspot.com. Whoever did the marketing and research on this thing definitely had me in mind. I'm not sure if it was the colors of the website or the layout, but it definitely got me hooked. This will be the one that I sign up for with the rest of the assignment. I thought Greenfield.com looked the most professional, but surveyspot.comlooked a whole lot more interesting.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Alright guys, I think the analysis is a bunch of hooey! :) Not the best test in the world. I mean, it is entertaining and all but I really don't see how I think a body of water represents in any way, shape or fashion how I think about my sex life....

Some of the high points, I officially view my life now as Green lively and moist, full of energy.

I viewed my religion as a red cup that when I got close enough to it, I kicked it!

I thought the key was pretty cool, which is where I thought knowledge was shiny and I picked it up and put it in my pocket.

And I want the rest of my life to be downhill and easy going.

Entertaining, but not relevant in business.

The most useful tool would be the role playing. I could very easily see a manager allowing an associate to role play to get a 360 view of how the employee sees their manager and how he handles different situations.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Man oh man. This is what bites a business in the butt everytime you turn around. I really like this discussion. I guess my favorite question is the first one that relates to the McDonald's VP. Just think about what kind of deliema this guy is in! I mean, ethics on my level is whether or not to steal the nice ink pen from the bank counter when depositing a check. This guy has spent millions of dollars on research to effectively show that he did the research for nothing! To save his job, he's gonna have to put in his report that the consumer satisfaction rating is the 89% that agree that there are healthy offerings. The right thing to do would be to report his findings that the market that they're trying to appeal to just isn't going to eat there. All the health buffs will definitely hit Subway before McDonalds. Kinda like selling ice to an Eskimo. There are just too many offerings out there that will better suit their needs. Totally wrong market for their burgers and fries. So if I'm this VP for McD's that has just screwed up and spent a lot of money for nothing, what do I do? I tell the truth, take my severance package and go apply for a job at Waffle House....they don't mind selling a heart attack on a platter!

The last question is after leading a successful presentation that the client wants the raw info from the research. This is probably the easiest question that can be answered. This goes against everything that ethics stand for. This would breech researcher/client server confidentiality and privacy. No way would I surrender the information. These are all corporate pressures that can define the very existance of the firm that you are working for. There may be a hidden agenda behind asking for the data. This may very well be a task to see if your company would surrender the data to other clients when asked. You never know why others ask for things they do.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Hi guys. My name is David Streetman. I'm a business management major and am on schedule to graduate this December (as long as I make it through 3808!). I'm working full time and have been going to school for the past three years at UWG to complete my education. I graduated High School in 1994, graduated Ga Highlands (then Floyd College) in Rome Ga in 1997 with an AS in Physical Therapy. I took about every science class they offered, trying to figure out what I would like to do with my life. I finally decided to get a job, got married, had the best daughter in the world. I've been married for the past 11 years, and my daughter will be 10 this November. My wife returned to school in 03, finished her teaching degree in 05, and I got the pleasure of seeing her graduate from UWG. I followed suit, and returned to Ga Highlands with a change of major to business, transferred to UWG in the summer of 07.

I work at Printpack, a printing company in Villa Rica. We make all of the bags for Frito Lay potato chips. I've been with the company for 11 years and have had many positions including my current position in the Corporate Analytical Lab.

My hobbies include motorcycles, golf, softball, video games (I'm an Xbox guy), as well as tinkering with anything electronic. My favorite is motorcycles. I'm very passionate about them, and have ridden everything from crotch rockets to cruisers. I love em!

As far as my schedule, I'm available Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and after the 7th of September I will be available on the weekends.